Dear Dr. Jones,
When we first started this class at the beginning of the semester I thought that I was going to struggle. To be honest I have never really enjoyed writing I was one of those students who did that bare minimum to get the good grades. I was never engaged in finding new topics that truly interest me and take that interest to the next level to inform others. With that being said I am truly enjoying this class. I think that everything that has been introduced by you, Tompkins (2012) and Hicks (2009) has opened my eyes to so many different ways to engage students in an authentic writing experience that helps develop them into successful writers in a way I was never engaged during grade school.
As I just stated I have never enjoyed writing and wasn’t how reading and writing are connected because I love to read. Looking back on this class so far I now see how interconnected reading and writing really are. I now see that the writing process is an integral part of how students grow, developing ideas and revisiting them, revising and changing them to construct their own meaning using text after being exposed to a rich variety of text in their classroom. Once a person understands how to create meaning in text the easier it is for you to understand what meaning an author is trying to convey to you as you read.
I think that right now I fully transact with the writing process more than I ever have. Graduate school as pushed me to rad any texts that I may never have considered before as well as bringing new ideas to the forefront of my mind. While all this is a normal part of graduate programs I have never been able to writing so strongly and feel so well informed about a topic. This is what gives me that ability to truly “think when I write” a process that I know I only voluntarily engaged in a few times before. I have chosen to engage in this process of reading and writing at this point in my life because the topics we are discussing are important to me. Teaching is something that I have always wanted to do and do well to benefit my students. If I don’t engage fully in the reading and writing process while learning about them how can I expect to grow as teacher? How can I ask me students to engage if I myself don’t? This is what drives me to learn and grow so that I can be the best possible teacher who can foster a love of reading and a love of writing so that students grow up choosing to interact with meaningful text.
Overall this class has introduced many strategies that I want to employ in my future classroom. There are so many that foster learning and independence as a writer but I think the one that struck me the most was introducing writer’s workshop as whole. I was never exposed to the type of writing workshop presented in this class, but I am loving it! The idea of giving students freedom of choice or topics, independence in the process, collaborating with their peers, conferencing with their teachers, and creativity to publish text through their choice of medium. All of these aspects of the workshop can give students a feeling of ownership and that being a writer is important as well as being able to construct meaning to share with others. I also like the different strategies that bot Tompkins(2012) and Hicks (2012) have introduced that can help students organize their ideas if they are stuck as well as bring information to them on the computer screen that they can sift through. Both of these types of strategies teacher give up control of “Pouring information into their heads” and acts rather as a support for their students instead of know it all.
As of right now I am not struggling with anything in class, I was a little overwhelmed a few weeks ago when all the different projects and presentations we had to complete throughout the semester. But I now see that by using writer’s workshop during class time I will have more than enough time to get things done. So far I am enjoying this class and how it pushing me to think differently about writing.
Sincerely,
Rianna, I am glad to learn that you are finding this class to be helpful in changing your personal attitudes about writing as well as your professional understandings regarding how best to teach your future students to read and write. I hope you continue to find these kinds of experiences in the coming weeks.
ReplyDelete